


Take Me Home

by TheQueen



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Military, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, M/M, The Director's A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-05 00:18:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14032029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: Tucker thinks he's getting a handle on this: college, parenthood, dating... He thinks he's got this.He does not got this.





	1. Prologue

 

Home, let me come home  
Home is wherever I'm with you  
~ _Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros_

…

 _Well then,_ he thinks, _well, well, well…Isn’t this just right?_ And he snickers…sorta. Under his breath, quiet enough that he’s in no risk of waking Leo who's curled up on the sofa or Carolina whose half sitting against the wall, eyes closed for the moment. The only sound, other than the constant intake of his breath, is the steady beeping of the monitor to his right and it is his lifeline. As long as it keeps beeping, there is hope. As long as the line keeps moving up and down just like it does in the TV shows, then everything is going to be okay.

And if he can hold onto that, they're going to be okay.

The phone in his pocket buzzes, once, twice, three times and then goes to voicemail. It’s probably Wash. Scratch that. He knows its Washington. Of course it is. When is it not Washington calling him? Pulling him out of work. Sending him halfway around town and back. Making him late to classes and work and pick ups at the daycare because Tucker had been dumb enough to believe that everything… everything...

And there's the anger. He'd been waiting for it. Too busy being numb from shock and fear to really let it settle in. But here in this quiet he's beyond angry, he's beyond enraged.

Wash had fed him a lie. Promised that everything was going to get better if he just made a choice. Just tried. Just cared enough to take a stand.

And now here he is in a hospital room. The body on the bed is too small. This room is too small. There isn’t enough oxygen in the air for him to breath without stuttering.  And he hates, hates, the feeling of vinyl.

His phone rings again.

He ignores it.

On the bed, Junior—his boy, his beautiful baby boy—keeps breathing just enough air to keep that beeping going. And Tucker focuses on that. He has to focus on that.

 


	2. Chapter 1

 

There are things to be said about a Church party. Most of those things can’t be said in front of children and polite company (like to his mother and hadn’t that been a mistake). But the things that could be said fell along key descriptors like wild or crazy or batshit insane. Grif liked to call it a fucktruck orgy, whatever the fuck that meant. But still it had a ring to it.

So when he gets tired of said fucktruck orgy full of too many people and too loud, base heavy music and enough alcohol to give everyone a hangover from hell, he heads up to the second floor where the sounds and the lights and the people were muffled by distance to light a smoke.

He’s surprised, but not terribly disappointed to notice that there was someone else here.

“Yo,” he greets, letting the door close behind him with a dull thud. Walking over, he leans over and grabs a cig from the carton by the window with a grin and takes a seat on the coach after the stranger makes room (and didn’t he have nice long legs? Not that Tucker was going to make a pass—there were things in this life he appreciated and long legs were one followed only by a nice ass and maybe some abs because who didn’t like abs—cause he’d made a promise to cut down every since Junior become a permanent fixture in his home and life) with a grunt around the bud in his mouth. “Tucker.”

The stranger is kind enough to look out the window when he blows and says, “David.”

Tucker clicked his lighter and tried to start his smoke (he made a note to by another lighter cause this one was shit but what did he expect? Church was always a cheapass). “You’re Wash, then?”

David—Wash—jerks, surprised and…pissed if Tucker was reading him right in the light of the half-moon. “How do you…?”

“Dude,” Tucker grins, “There was no way ‘Lina was gonna let us forget who this party was for. Speaking which, why you up here and not making rounds downstairs?”

Wash, David? Who cares. Wash glared at the wall past his head. “Same reason as you, I suppose.”

Tucker shrugged, “Got tired of pushing off all the  _ladies_ , huh?” he jokes with a wink and Wash’s glares seems to intensify so he adds, “Chill, dude. Just wanted a smoke and a break from the noise.”

“I don’t usually do…” he shrugs and gestures to the empty room, “This.”

“Smoke alone?” Tucker guessed.

“Parties,” Wash clarifies, “I usually don’t do…parties.” He sighs and takes another drag.

“Makes sense,” Tucker takes another drag. He knew he promised his Mama he’d quit, especially now that he had a kid in the house. And he’d get on that, tomorrow. Or maybe in a month. Make it a New Years Resolution? Eh.

Wash finished his cigarette and lit another one. Chain smoker then. “What does that mean?”

“Huh?”

“’Makes sense,’” Wash quoted, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, dude.” Tucker shrugged, “I mean…you’re just a bit uptight.”

“And you just came to this conclusion because?” And now the glare had moved from the wall to him and, okay, now he can see why some folks told him to stay on Wash’s good side—mainly North who apparently knew the dude from like Middle School or something, he’d kind of zoned out during Lina’s history lesson there. Not his fault. Junior had been crying for most of the night and he was tired.

Tucker raised an eyebrow.

Wash scowled.

“Nothing wrong with uptight,” Tucker said as an olive branch. “It works with the whole military brass you got going on,” he gestured to the medal pinned to his shirt.

“Carolina said I should wear it,” Wash said as if he needed to defend himself. Which was stupid as far as Tucker was concerned. He had every right to go flashing his achievements; he’d damn earned them.

Which he tells Wash. “You earned it, dude. Wear it proud.”

Wash snorts, crushes his cigarette and stands up so fast that Tucker tenses on reflex, waiting to get hit (though he doesn’t get why. Like usually he knew he deserved it, this time not so much).  Wash pauses, stares at him like he’s never seen anyone like Tucker before storming out of the room without saying a word

Ugh…okay then?

…

When Tucker wakes up, it’s to the sound of three beeps from hell and he groans in equal measures of resentment and disgust before fishing his phone out from where it was jammed against his headrest to turn off his alarm. 6:30am glared back at him in blinding white letters before he allowed the offending piece of technology to fall to the bed. You know…. he’d been prepared for losing sleep. Really he had. Taking care of a kid came with that, especially when they were babies and prone to crying and not really getting that you went to bed between certain hours and not whenever you fucking felt like it.

But here’s the thing. No one had told him he’d be losing sleep just to get shit done. Because you know what? His kid was fucking fabulous. Pre-made to nap as far as Tucker knew because the kid could conk out at 9pm and would not make a sound till 8am unless he was feeling less then 100% awesome. So for all purposes, Tucker should have been able to sleep until eight because life was awesome like that. But nope. No. It was never that easy.

Because being a parent meant juggling and Tucker had quickly realized between classes and work and Junior (and god he might bitch but its worth it. It’s worth it for his baby and he’s trying but its so fucking hard. God damn it) he could barely keep his life together with the time he had. So what he needed was more time.

And so here he was, five months in with Junior living at his place full time and still not used to getting up before the sun. But he still gets up and drags himself into the kitchen to make some coffee in a desperate attempt to battle both the sleepiness and the ache of a hangover from last night and that’s when he notices there’s a body on his coach that he was not anticipating and fuck.  _Fuck._

He did not want Junior seeing this.

But first coffee. So he starts the pot and spends a few minutes collecting himself before walking over to the coach and looking down to see if he recognizes this one before kicking them out and starts laughing.

Which, of course, startles Grif awake with a sharp cut-off snore that sounds more like a painful snort.

“The fuck, man.” Grif scowled, trying to subtle whip the drool from his chin.

Tucker snickered, “I really regret giving you that key.”

“Bullshit.”

“So did Simmons kick you out or something?” Tucker asked, making his way back to the kitchen where he can hear the sweet hiss of caffeine.

It takes a minute before Grif gets up and follows after him, his steps echoing softly in the silence of the apartment and, as surreal it is to see him up early, Tucker is happy that he’s here. Sometimes it gets creep, up by himself when usually BG is never quiet, always full of neighbors arguing or children running through the halls or Sarge stomping around demanding order and just creating chaos as Lopez hurrying after him in a desperate attempt at damage control, bitching in broken Spanish. That was the deal at BG Apartments with its paper-thick walls, over-cramped apartments, squeaky floorboards, and permanently broken elevator. Here, the motto was shitty but decent enough.

When Grif sits down at the counter, Tucker passes him a cup with more cream then coffee. “Its six-thirty,” Grif groans, chugging his cup as if it wasn’t fresh from the pot and scalding before grimacing at, what he insists, is the worst after-taste known to man.

Tucker pours himself a tall glass and adds some sugar. He started taking his coffee mostly black because he thought it was cool. Now he actually, sorta, likes it and Grif still wrinkles his nose at the “sludge.” “Got work to do.”

“What fucking work needs doing before the sun?” Grif scowls.

Tucker shrugs. “Housework. Are you staying or…?”

Grif steals an apple from the bowl—Tucker has made it a point to keep fruit around the house because 1) his mom had suggest it and 2) it made him feel a little more grown up and 3) it was a good habit to get into now that he was sort of a parent and Junior was going to eat healthy if he had any say in it—and shrugs. “I’ll probably pass out again.”

“Don’t you have work in like two hours?” Tucker asks, wrinkling his nose a little when Grif goes to wipe away the excess apple juice with his hand and automatically hands him a towel after crushing the urge to wipe it away for him.  Grif snorts and accepts the paper towel and wipes his chin before crumpling it in his hand.

“The Garage is cutting shifts,” Grif shrugs again but Tucker can tell from the way Grif seems to sort of curl into himself that this a pretty big deal. Cut shifts meant less work for Grif, which meant less money coming in and with three mouths to feed, Grif was probably really feeling the strain.

“You know I’ve got you right,” Tucker offered, taking a sip of his coffee now that it was cool enough and shifting his weight against the counter so he was leaning a little more comfortably.

Grif shook his head. “You’ve got a kid to look after now, Tuck,” Grif reminded him.

“Yeah, well, I still got ya,” Tucker insisted. “We all do.”

Grif shrugged again and finished off his apple, lost in thought, as Tucker left to start laundry.

…

The one positive about having Grif over is that he offers to watch Junior and drop Tucker off so he doesn’t have to take the bus and then walk another block to campus for his morning classes. Which meant he wouldn’t be late—for once—and didn’t need to call Shelia over, which was money he could save up to actually buy his own car because this was getting a little ridiculous.

He’d considered going part time but he really needed to graduate as soon as possible. The financial aid had increased now that he had a dependent, but student loans were still burying him alive and his mom couldn’t support him anymore (and he’d rather sell a liver or something before crawling to his father for favors—learned that lesson the hard way).  This meant he wasn’t able to spend as much time with Junior as the 1 year old needed. He’d already missed his first crawl (Simmons had recorded it, thank god, but it wasn’t the same thing) and he would cry if he missed Junior’s first words. But there wasn’t much he could do. He needed this degree. And he needed a job. And he needed to be able to support his kid and help his friends and help himself.

But first he needed to get through math class.

Sitting down next to Carolina, Tucker pulls out his laptop and sends a quick message to Simmons asking about Grif. “Nice shades, Lina.”

Carolina flips him off and sinks lower in her seat with a mild groan. At the front of the room, the professor stops talking to his TAs and starts logging onto the computer.

“So I’m guessing you didn’t win that drinking game, huh?” Tucker teases, nudging her with his foot.

Carolina shushes him, “I hate you.”

“No you don’t.”

“I hate you so much right now.”

The professor starts talking, using the pointer to gesture at the slide before moving to the board to start writing. Tucker half-heartedly typed a few notes before deciding he just really didn’t want to be here and poked Carolina again. “I’m bored.”

Carolina grunts. Tucker isn’t sure if its in agreement or annoyance. Probably both.

He pokes her again. “Lina,” he whines, “Pay attention to me.”

She turns her head and glares at him from over her sunglasses. “Seriously. So much hate right now.”

Tucker gives his world-renowned, has-saved-his-ass-too-many-times, shit-eating grin and she laughs. “So much.”

It’s hard to remember that once upon a time, she would have meant that. Back when Leo had finally bothered to introduce him to his family (though now Tucker knows why he hesitated so much) and Carolina and Tucker were more likely to throw punches then go out for drinks or joke around in lecture (though there was no way Tucker was dumb enough to try and beat Carolina in a fight. He liked his face).

“So what happened after I left?” Tucker asks, doodling in the corner of his notebook.

Carolina slumps down further in her seat and tilts her head back, done bothering to try to pay attention. “Everyone got more wasted?” she sighs, “David left though which sort of sucks cause all that booze was in his honor and all.”

Tucker snorts, “I’m not surprised. Was real pissed when I saw him.”

Carolina let her head slump to the side stared at him and through the tinted sunglasses, Tucker was positive she was glaring at him. “What did you do?”

Now while a Carolina glare was always terrifying even with the hangover and the douche sunglasses, Tucker had mostly lost the fear factor after helping her clean her own puke off the floor of her dad’s BMW around three months after meeting her. So while a normal man may have shat himself at having The Glare turned their way, Tucker just rolled his eyes. “Went up for a smoke and met the dude. Chatted but he had a major stick up his ass and stormed out after I complimented his medal.”

Carolina didn’t say anything and Tucker looked up from his doodle to see her glaring at her textbook. “What?”

Carolina shrugged.

“Seriously?” Tucker whined. “You’re gonna do this. It’s not like I made fun of him or something.”

“It’s not mine to say,” she defended and then added, “I don’t really know anything either.”

Tucker slumped in his seat and pouted, “Liar.”

She snorted, “Whatever you say,  _Lavernius_.”

“AW! Dude, come on!”

…

Munching on the sandwich Tucker had grabbed it from the quad’s Bag ’n’ Grab; he made his way to his north side classroom for the Professional Communication class he’d been pushing off since sophomore year--at least he’d finished his health credits his first year—when Leo called him. Pulling it out of his pocket, he considered ignoring it before clicking accept and holding it to his ear. “HayYO!”

“Look, I need a favor.”

“What?” Tucker scoffed, “No, how’s your day? Hello? I miss you? Nothin’? I’m feelin’ a little neglected here Professor Leo.”

Tucker could see the eye roll through the phone, “Whatever, asshole. I’m serious.”

“And I’m listening, what can the Love Doctor help you with today?” Tucker finished off his sandwich and tucked the wrapper into his pocket. “Tex threaten to cut your dick off? ‘Cause I’m gonna be honest with you, buddy. You probably deserve it.”

“I fuckin’ hate you so much,” Leo scowled and then silence as Tucker waited for him to ask for whatever favor he needed. Not like he was gonna say no after all. It was rare Leo admitted he needed help, often adamant that he could do everything himself (but after that hospital visit, Tucker was pretty sure he’d beat it into Leo’s thick skull that he didn’t need to) so when he did ask Tucker was willing to drop everything (short of Junior, of course) to help.

Finally, Leo sighed, “My father’s coming to town.”

Tucker stopped walking. “You have got to be shitting me.”

“I wish, dude.” Leo laughed, humorlessly, “You fucking know I do.”

“Does Lina know?”

“Yeah,” Leo said, “He called her, first.”

Tucker cursed and ran a hand through his hair and tugged at one of his loose locs, “Okay….okay. We can do this. We can…” Tucker shrugged, feeling helpless. “We can work something out. Did he say when he was coming?”

“Next week.” There was a pause and then Leo half-joked, “You think I can fake my death by then?”

Tucker snorted and closed his eyes. He was going to be late for class. “I think I know a guy.”

Leo laughed and Tucker gave himself a mental pat on the back.

Finally, Leo said, “At least, Carolina’s here this time.”

“Yeah,” Tucker agreed us, “And you’ve got Tex and the Reds and Caboose and me.”

“And Junior,” Leo reminded him.

“Course, you’ve got Junior.” Tucker grinned.

There was another pause as Leo just sort of breathed soft and slow before saying. “We’re never gonna fuck up like he did, right Tucker?”

Tucker started walking again, kicking an acorn across the sidewalk, “Yeah. We’re not. You know we’re not.”

“Yeah,” Leo agreed, “We love him too much.”


	3. RvB Headcanon: Tucker and Junior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little series of headcanons for this universe! ^^

Junior’s birth mother is Kaikaina who got pregnant during her Sophomore year (Tucker was a Junior). She loves the kid but knew she wasn’t ready to be a mother and decided early on after she decided not to have an abortion that she wanted to be Auntie Kai instead of Mama Kai and everyone respected that. When Junior finds out, they keep calling her Auntie Kai because they love her even if they did have a hard time handling it for a little while.

Junior is on the Autism Spectrum and has ADHD so has a hard time at traditional school and is convinced their stupid and will never succeed at anything even though their the learning spanish so they can speak fluently with Tio Lopez and is learning to fix cars really fast with Uncle Sarge at the Garage and is an amazing ballerina. Everyone tries to convince them otherwise—especially Tucker—but they just have a hard time believing them.

When everyone found out that Junior had a learning disorder, Kai blamed herself for some time and apologized to Tucker who was honesty confused and said “What are you talking about? Out kid is perfect.” She got over it when she realized Tucker was right and Junior was perfect, learning disability included, because Junior is an amazing person even if they have a hard time reading or doing math or paying attention in class.

Junior started calling Tucker Mama after his second day of Kindergarten when his classmates tried to explain to him what a Mama was and they decided that sounded like Tucker.

Tucker never corrected him.

Junior is a gifted dancer and was invited to a prestigious dance school. So Tucker spent months trying to save up before the enrollment deadline but he’s still a newly graduated college student with too much debt and a decently paying job. And the deadline is closing in and he’s afraid he’s going to have to give Junior the bad news when Tucker finally tells the BGC and Freelancers why he hasn’t been going out as he usually does and they quickly get the money together because they’ve all been raising this kid together, as one dysfunctional family, for the last ten years even if they don't all live in the same city like they used to in college, and love Junior too much to see such an amazing opportunity wasted because of money.

Junior just doesn’t get gender. It took a while for them to get Tucker to understand, but once Tucker does his helicopter parenting goes to the next level (Wash isn't subtle either) as if he could force the world to be more accepting through pure will. Junior's been taught to respect people’s gender pronouns (Auntie Kai and Auntie Donut made sure of that) but they don't see the point of using it. So they're don't and is agender.


	4. RVB Headcanon: Leo (Church) and Caboose

Leo meets Caboose one day outside an ice cream parlor. Poor kid looks like he's going to cry and Leo just got his allowance (because money is just one more leash around his neck though his father might not say it) so he thinks _“fuck it”_ and asks the kid what's wrong and if he wants an ice cream. After that, it just kind of becomes a thing where Leo feeds Caboose because he has ratty tennis shoes and a fleece sweater with one too many holes and this ridiculous sweet tooth. And at first Leo convinces himself it's just a rebellion, a way to stick it to his old man. But not really and he knows it.

And one day Caboose doesn't show up outside the Ice Cream Parlor and Leo spends four hours searching for him, even calling in _three_ favors in to get his sister and her stupid friends to help him until they find him asleep in some random alley, surrounded by homeless dogs. And when Leo gets his hands on him, he screams. He screams and demands Caboose never do that to him again and Caboose promises even if he doesn't really understand why Leo is upset, just that this is important.

The next time they met, Leo hands him a cell phone and makes him swear to always keep it. He later regrets it later that day when Caboose starts (and never stops) send him pictures of dogs and WHERE WAS HE EVEN GETTING ALL THESE DOGS, JESUS?!

The first time Caboose calls Leo his best friend, Leo denies it. He still does just for the heck of it, but everyone knows he’s lying. (Caboose always knew he was lying.)

Leo gets into too many colleges. It’s a problem. Because he knows where his father wants to put him. He knows he’s expected to go somewhere like Harvard or Yale or MIT. He knows he’s supposed to go rub elbows with other rich kids and pass all his classes with A++++’s because it's never enough for his father to be _just_ a child protegee graduating high school at 16. So he waits until the deadline and laughs when he clicks UBG in dead city Blood Gulch, Ohio, far away from his father and far away from where he’s expected to go. He laughs through his scolding and he laughs through his punishment and it’s the freest he’s felt in years.

When he tells Caboose he’s leaving, the fucker follows him and he’s so glad. He’s so, so glad, but he never tells anyone. (Everyone knows anyway.)


	5. RvB Headcanon: Tucker and Leo (Church)

Tucker and Leo meet because they’re in the same fraternity and ended up with the same Big. They didn’t really become friends until Greek Week where they got paired as prank partners and spent the rest of the semester trying to outdo the other. 

Their fraternity’s colors just happened to be blue and white. 

When Junior is first born, Leo buys baby formula and stuff but his father is monitoring his credit card so his father thinks he had some kind of love child and is so furious, he flies down to BGU and starts yelling at Leo in front of everyone until Tucker realizes what’s going on and explains the situation and apologizes for causing trouble

Dr. Church takes a shining to Tucker and Junior—who he begins to dote on as if Junior was his grandchild—because he actually really does love kids. He often gives Tucker parenting advice which Tucker takes with a grain of salt but not all of his advice is bad. Dr. Church often makes veiled insults towards Leo when he compliments Tucker or Carolina and Tucker doesn’t understand—but he is uncomfortable—until Leo snaps and screams at him. It really strains their friendship for a while until Tucker clues. After that, Tucker will often step in as a distraction to keep Dr. Church away from Leo. And he doesn’t know the details but he knows there is something wrong in that house and he doesn’t like Leo being alone with the Director.

When Tucker is in a rough spot financially, Leo pulls some string (and dares to ask his father for a favor and the threat of owing his father hangs over his head like a metaphorical axe) to help Tucker get a job at his dad's company as a glorified (well played) secretary. 

Tucker and Leo are buying toys with Junior when they run into one of North and South’s cousin who is there with her daughter. When Junior picks up a female gendered toy, the Cousin is disgusted and makes a remark about how gays are destroying America. Tucker is all “we’re not together” until Leo kisses him and the lady is all huffy. In the meantime, Junior has been flirting hard with the daughter and slips her his number. And the daughter calls him up and Tucker sets up a playdate. That’s how Tucker meets the freelancers.

**Author's Note:**

> Written originally after season 12. So I have no plans to continue this. I've had this story sitting in my folder for a while and it got depressing seeing it sit. If I ever have the time I might come back to this. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
>  
> 
> Title Inspo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8


End file.
